Freschi, Elisa

The contribution of Sanskrit philosophy to world philosophy has been historically massive and our awareness of it is destined to be even greater in the future. Many Sanskrit philosophical texts are relatively easy to translate into fields well-recognisable as ”Philosophy”, primarily philosophy of language, epistemology and logic. No one would hesitate to see the value of questions asked and discussed by Sanskrit philosophers about the logic of commands or about epistemology. For instance, when does a command get suspended, or what is the truth-value of statements expressing intermingled prescriptions and descriptions? Or, how do we grasp absences? 

In addition to that, Sanskrit authors look systematically and philosophically at fields rather neglected within Euro-American philosophy, such as philosophy of ritual, which is one of my central interests. I contribute to the study and recognition of both groups of texts, with a focus on the contribution of individual authors, rather than vaguely identified schools or traditions.

• History of Sanskrit Philosophy 500– 1400 CE
• Epistemology, linguistics, deontic logic and philosophy of religion of the Mīmāṃsā and Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta schools, especially as regards the epistemology of sacred texts
• Cross-cultural Philosophy especially in the fields of linguistics, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and deontic logic

• 1996–2002 BA+MA in Asian languages and Civilisations, BA in Philosophy, University “La Sapienza”, Rome (Italy), Diploma in Classical Tibetan, IsIAO, Rome (Italy))
• 2003–2006, PhD in Sanskrit Philosophy, University “La Sapienza”, Rome (Italy)
• 2014 Habilitation in South Asian Studies (awarded by the Italian Minister of Education and Research) Employment •
• 2007, Lecturer, University “La Sapienza”, Rome
• 2007–2008 Grant for training in a foreign country, University of Milan
• 2009–2011 Research Fellow of Sanskrit, University “La Sapienza”, Rome
• 2012, Fellow, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Sciences, Fukuoka
• 2012–2014 Project leader of a FWF project, Austrian Academy of Sciences, IKGA, Vienna
• 2014–2015 Research Assistant, Technische Universität Wien
• 2015–2020 Project leader of a FWF project, Austrian Academy of Sciences, IKGA, Vienna
• 2017–2020 Assistant (non-tenured), Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna
• 2017–2022 Co-project leader of a WWTF project, Austrian Academy of Sciences, IKGA, Vienna
• 2020–2026 Assistant and then Associate Professor for South Asian Philosophy, University of Toronto, Department of Philosophy
• since September 2026 Professorship of Sanskrit Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna